Plate Lab - X2D / P2S Aruco codes

3D Printing + Plate Lab

With the P2S and X2D Bambu made some changes to the Aruco codes. I couldn't find a detailed description yet (and I don't own an X2D or P2S yet) but this is what I figured out thus far...

Plate Lab - Test Objects for Testing Build Plate Adhesion

3D Printing + Plate Lab

In modern day 3D printers you have a lot of choice in build plates, filaments, temperatures, speeds, making it almost impossible to compare the actual adhesion of the different combinations.

When fooling around with buildplates (see PlateLab) I tried to come up with a way to properly (and objectively) test material / plate adhesion.

Plate Lab - Cool & Cold Plates

3D Printing + Plate Lab

Not all cold plates are created equal. And many are simply not cold plates at all.

Here's a comparison between several (cheap) cold plates. Note: if you want me to test another plate, drop me a line, and send me that plate 😊

Plate Lab - Glass Fiber based Building Plates - Part V - DIY FR4 Plate

3D Printing + Plate Lab

I made these tools to fabricate some of my own plates. These 'tools' are made using wood, some PETG bits and pieces, and a router. These made it a little easier to assemble a plate (but there's still a lot of room for improvements).

Plate Lab - Glass Fiber based Building Plates - Part IV - Crap & Danger

3D Printing + Plate Lab

3240 can be anything. And stuff sold as FR4 can be outright crap.

So, there's the enterprising Chinese entrepreneur who sells very old FR4 on Amazon... It may once have qualified as FR4, but not today. These plates were old, ugly, damaged, full of scratches, and definitely contain formaldehyde, bromide, and probably tons of other halogens.

Moral of the story: made sure you know what and where you buy!

Plate Lab - Glass Fiber based Building Plates - Part III - Textured Surfaces

3D Printing + Plate Lab

There's surprisingly little understandable explanation of the impact of texture on adhesion and release on print beds... But we can reason it through. (And steal from the real scientists 😇)

Obviously, texture also applies to PEI, Polyurea, and in fact, every other plate!

Plate Lab - Glass Fiber based Building Plates - Part II - (Surface) Materials

3D Printing + Plate Lab

For a change this is all about the surface (of building plates, yes, but ain't it great to be superficial for once?)

I've split the previous page in two, as it was starting to confuse myself, and moved all the material stuff in here.

Plate Lab - Glass Fiber based Building Plates - Part I - The Basics

3D Printing + Plate Lab

This is a boring page. Skip it if you don't care about the materials used in your glass fiber / carbon based Building Plate.

Still with me? Okay. Here we go... Remember: everything in this post is about using glass (carbon) fiber based materials as build plates.

Plate Lab - Textured PEI - Bambu and Third Party

3D Printing + Plate Lab

In the beginning 😇 Bambu Lab was shipping the X1C with random plates. These days they all seem to come with the gold colored textured PEI plate (at least here in NL). A sensible thing, as it's one of the easiest to use 😏

Textured PEI doesn't just make sense for Bambu Lab owners... they make sense for every 3D printer with a heated bed.

Plate Lab - Cleaning Building Plates

3D Printing + Plate Lab

How to clean a 3D Printer building plate? It ain't much more than simply cleaning the dishes...

Read more...

Plate Lab - PEY and relatives - All the holographic stuff

3D Printing + Plate Lab

To be honest, I don't own a single one of those PEO / PEY 'holographic' plates, except the 'PET Carbon' one. Which a. isn't made of carbon, and b. has some very minor texture to it (though I can't feel it). And c. This page is pretty useless 🤣

Read more...

Plate Lab - Bigtreetech Panda Dual Textured SSS building plate (black)

3D Printing + Plate Lab

Bigtreetech sells a number of products aimed at the Bambu Lab printers, all using the Panda moniker. Marketing-wise it's a great idea. Product-wise the SSS plate is a bit of a disaster.

It looks like PEI (but only at first glance). It isn't though. It might be epoxy, some other unholy coating, or it might be a kind of truck bedliner / oily paint.

Nobody knows, including Bigtreetech.

Plate Lab - X1C Aruco codes and all Bambu Lab plates

3D Printing + Plate Lab

The Bambu Lab X1C has an interesting option. It looks for a marker on the building plate, and warns you if the plate inserted does not match the one you've used during slicing. Pretty convenient, isn't it?

The P1S and P1P don't use this code, and many cheaper build plates don't have a code. So what to do?

Plate Lab - Building Plates Letter Soup - From Engineering to PEI to PEZ to Lightyear to Garolite to FR4...

3D Printing + Plate Lab

Engineering High Temperature Smooth Textured PEI PEX PEZ PEY Cryogrip SSS Polyurea FR4 GS10 TK99 Honeycomb Cube Wham Bam Lightyear...

My god! It's enough to drive one crazy! So, I've ordered a few different ones, and have been scouring the Internet for more information. And to be perfectly honest: it's a confusing mess.